Healey, Massachusetts Dems ‘Thrilled’ With Tim Walz Pick As Kamala Harris’s Vice Presidential Running Mate

“If you want to see the difference between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, just look at the quality and character of the person they chose as their running mate,” Governor Healey said. “Tim had a two-decade career as a teacher and in the Army reserves before he became an elected official. He is a person of deep integrity and empathy. As Governor, Tim has been a champion for the working families of his state and brings a common-sense approach to getting things done for the people he serves. He will be an outstanding partner to Kamala Harris during this campaign and as her Vice President.”

Walz chairs the Democratic Governors Association, an organization Healey has been active in since she took office last year. In December 2023, Healey was tapped to chair the organization’s Women Governors Fund, which launched in 2018 as the political organization’s only fund-raising effort focused solely on helping Democratic women win corner offices.

Walz does not appear to have many ties to Massachusetts. He taught in China through a Harvard University exchange program around 1990, according to The New York Times, but he holds degrees from Chadron State College in Nebraska and Minnesota State University at Mankato.

As a member of Congress in 2016, Walz worked with Massachusetts Congressman Seth Moulton (D-Salem) to defend the Post-9/11 GI Bill from potential cuts, and former Massachusetts state representative Marty Walz said on the social media platform widely known as Twitter last week that her family claims the Minnesota governor — and her desired VP choice — as a cousin. (Walz, a Democrat, represented parts of Boston and Cambridge.)

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu heaped praise on Walz, too, saying during an interview on GBH News’s Boston Public Radio that his work as a governor and in Congress and his background as a teacher offer a “perfect combination.”

The Trump campaign immediately painted Walz as someone “obsessed with spreading California’s dangerously liberal agenda far and wide,” pointing to his “carbon-free agenda” and support for stricter emission standards for gas-powered cars.

“It’s no surprise that San Francisco Liberal Kamala Harris wants West Coast wannabe Tim Walz as her running-mate – Walz has spent his governorship trying to reshape Minnesota in the image of the Golden State,” Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a written statement. “If Walz won’t tell voters the truth, we will:  just like Kamala Harris, Tim Walz is a dangerously liberal extremist, and the Harris-Walz California dream is every American’s nightmare.”